This invention relates to a modular hydraulic power system and more particularly to a compact modular adapting unit of a simple structure which can be assembled easily for supporting a hydraulic pump, a motor and accessory units such as a directional control valve.
To operate a given pump by a given motor, the user must initially check the mounting dimensions of the pump flange and the frame size of the motor and provide an appropriate adapter to couple them. Hydraulic pumps come in many sizes, however, and so do motors adapted to drive them. Thus, dealers are required to make available a large number of such adapters because a small motor may be mounted to a large pump or a large motor may be connected to a small pump, depending on the individual circumstances.
Utilizing currently available methods of adaption, the user has only a limited area within which he can operate when building or modifying units. The efficiency of constructing new units is now severely limited by the necessary use of many operations not readily automated and the narrow range of current adaption methods.
From the user's point of view, furthermore a new adapter must be purchased whenever it is decided to use a different motor on the same pump or to use the same motor to drive a different pump. In other words, the user must pay not only for a new motor or a new pump but also for an entirely new adapter.
In addition to a pump and a motor adapted to drive it, a hydraulic power system typically includes many accessory units such as, but not limited to, a directional control valve, heat exchanger, relief valve and, filter or filters, and various flow and pressure control valves. Conventional hydraulic power systems hitherto available commercially are structurally very complicated with many external lines and many man-hours are generally required to assemble such a system.